Pathogenic Bacteria

238 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

by Paquin. For a long period, donkeys were injected
with increasing doses of tuberculin, in order that an
antitoxin—antituberculin—might be generated in their
blood. Experiments upon guinea-pigs showed that the
serum was powerless to immunize against the tubercle
bacillus, or to cure established tuberculosis. The serum,
however, had the power of annulling the effects of tuber-
culin upon tuberculous animals. While a failure experi-
mentally, certain clinicians claim that in practice it ex-
erts a beneficial action upon patients. Indeed, presuming
that an antituberculin is formed, it is but natural that it
should do good in all cases in which it is probable that
the patient is poisoned by tuberculin or a similar product.
Rather nearer the desideratum are the experiments of
DeSchweinitz,1 who injected cows and horses with increas-
ing quantities of bouillon cultures of a greatly attenuated
tubercle bacillus, and subsequently found that the serum
possessed the property of rendering guinea-pigs immune
to the virulent bacilli.

The Bacillus of Fowl-tuberculosis (Tuberculosis gal-
linarum}.—The cases of tuberculosis which occasionally
occur spontaneously in chickens, parrots, ducks, and other
birds were originally attributed to the Bacillus tuberculo-
sis hominis, but the recent works of Rivolta, Mafucci,
Cadio, Gilbert, Roget, and others have shown that, while
very similar in many respects to the Bacillus tuberculosis,
the organism found in the disease of birds has distinct
peculiarities which stamp it a different variety, but not a
separate species. Cadio, Gilbert, and Roger succeeded in
infecting fowls by feeding them upon food containing tu-
bercle bacilli, and keeping them in cages in which dust
containing tubercle bacilli was placed. The infection
was aided by lowering the temperature with antipyrin
and lessening vitality by starvation. Morphologically,
the organisms are similar, the bacillus of fowl-tuber-
culosis being a little longer and more slender than its
ally.

1 Centralbl.f. Bakt. und Parasitenk., Sept. 15, 1897, Bd. xxii., Nos. 8 and 9.